My review of DARK ROOM by Edith Podesta
"Dark Room, a docudrama written and directed by Edith Podesta, shares the
true stories of former inmates of Changi Prison. They are based on
recorded interviews which lasted an average of two hours each. The first
incarnation of the play was entitled Dark Room x8 and staged as a
work-in-progress in 2014.
(...)
Amongst the cohesive ensemble of 11, Oliver Chong and Pavan J Singh constantly engage the audience with their adroit performances. They deliver their characters convincingly with a pertinent grasp of rhythm in their actions and speech, tinted with a sense of wretchedness and dark humour.
The other six male prisoners add diversity to the spectrum of personalities. Nelson Chia and Noor Effendy Ibrahim play the long-term inmates who orientate and give advice to the newbies; Timothy Nga plays the gay inmate who is placed in the same cell as the other straight men; Ian Tan plays a discouraged ex-convict who struggles with issues of acceptance in the society; Mohd Fared Jainal plays the melancholic inmate; and Erwin Shah Ismail plays the inmate who sheds light on the life in prison with his composed, and occasionally perceptive account.
Shafiqhah Efandi, who plays the only female prisoner in the piece, sustains her acting with a poignant inner soul-scape. She delivers her final soliloquy compellingly, with each word piercing right into the heart of the viewers.
The script is a sincere and intelligent piece of writing, especially
with its use of humour amidst the intense treatment of the subject.
However, the overly-dense text of the play – which clocks at 2 hours and
15 minutes – falls flat at some moments during the second half of the
show."
